大埔紫菀 da pu zi wan

Herbs, perennial, ca. 3 cm tall, scapiform; rhizomes slender and long, woody. Stems usually simple, erect, sometimes decumbent, laxly leafy. Leaves densely strigose; basal leaves rosulate, present at anthesis, winged petiolate, obovate or oblong, 1.5-2 × ca. 0.7 cm, thick, base gradually attenuate, margin serrate (teeth mucronulate), apex obtuse or ± acute; cauline leaves gradually smaller, shortly petiolate or subsessile, spatulate or lanceolate, base attenuate, apex acute. Capitula 1 or 2, shortly pedunculate, erect, ca. 8 mm in diam. Involucres hemispheric, 4-7 mm, tinged purple-red; phyllaries 2-seriate; outer phyllaries lanceolate, short, margin fimbriate-ciliate, scabrous, apex acuminate. Ray florets white, 7.5-7.7 mm, tube ca. 1.6 mm; disk florets ca. 3.6 mm, tube ca. 1.2 mm, limb campanulate, lobes lanceolate, ca. 2 mm, glabrous. Achenes (immature) strigose. Pappus (immature) dirty white, often tinged yellow, or reddish, ca. 2 mm.

● Stony mountains. Taiwan.

The original description of Aster itsunboshi was translated from Kitamura. The material seen at PE was damaged in the area of the capitula so some floral and achene characters could not be determined. According to Soejima and C. I Peng (Fl. Taiwan, ed. 2, 4: 855-857. 1998), citing Kitamura, this may be a juvenile form of A. morrisonensis. If this hypothesis were to prove incorrect, the species might be best treated in A. sect. Alpigeni.